Gerry Serrano, President of the Santa Ana Police Officers Association (SAPOA), has filed recall campaign committees against two of the women on the Santa Ana City Council – Jessie Lopez and Thai Viet Phan. Both are minorities and women of color.
Serrano’s beef has to do with the new police contract that Lopez and Phan voted for, along with two other Council colleagues, Johnathan Hernandez and Ben Vazquez.
Serrano is clearly trying to gain a majority on the Santa Ana City Council so he can go after SAPD Police Chief David Valentin and City Manager Kristine Ridge. However even though Serrano backed City Council Members Phil Bacerra, David Penaloza and our Mayor, Valerie Amezcua, we do not expect them to simply kneel to Serrano’s wishes.
Serrano is so obsessed with his vendetta against the SAPD Chief Valentin, that he recently complained to the City of Santa Ana about Valentin’s arrangement of buses to take SAPD police officers to the funeral of Riverside Deputy Calhoun, who was killed in action. Every major police department in Orange County did the same but Serrano claimed that Valentin’s actions were a waste of taxpayer money!
Here are Serrano’s exact words “Valentin’s continued abuse of tax payer dollars (city resources) to use these tragic events as a venue to parade our officers in other cities in uniform as if he were a dictator of a military army is shameful. For the city to continue to allow the use of city resources for his own personal agenda in this and abuse of press releases to solely pump his ego is shameful. Should city resources be used freely by Valentin in this way?“
If Serrano is concerned about wasting taxpayer money why is he launching a recall against two City Council Members? That is a HUGE waste of taxpayer money particularly since new state rules will require a separate special election to replace these Council Members.
Why isn’t Serrano going after Vazquez and Hernandez? Instead he is targeting two women of color on our City Council. This shameful behavior by Serrano continues the degradation of the image of the Santa Ana Police Officers Association. They used to be a respected union. Now they are in rolling the mud and Serrano put them there.
This blog will not support these recalls.
Here is what happened, in my opinion, with the police contract and why our SAPOA President is desperately resorting to RECALL. There is no excuse for what happened. The blame falls on our SAPOA President and E-Board, and look no further. Plain and simple, our SAPOA got out-negotiated. Our SAPOA failed the entire membership by risking items negotiated in our favor members had for years. That is unforgivable. So, our SAPOA President is only buying time before he is ousted.
The city was allowed to impose the contract because, from the readings, our SAPOA failed on a few points. Our SAPOA may have a few new Councilmen and Mayor with yes votes, but that’s it, and this is due to election donations received. (Verified by 460 forms online) The newest Councilman, Benjamin Vazquez, said it best. Watch the Youtube Santa Ana Council Meeting dated December 20, 2022, Item #44, and listen for yourself.
Our SAPOA President claims a Vendetta against him from the City of Santa Ana, the Police Department, and who knows who else, which are probably figments of his imagination. He needs to understand his style of negotiating needs to be updated. He uses a similar playbook employed by the defunct Law firm of Lackie, Dammeier & McGill. The city brought their “A” game this time, and our SAPOA got out-negotiated. Since our last contract, this has been a new city council and administration, so they were ready, and we blinked.
Bullying tactics of the past are not working, but we will say the SAPOA just spent $25,000 verified with the 470 forms for this newest RECALL extravaganza. This recent RECALL will most likely fall short because the RECALL is going after two minorities doing a great job. In today’s world, women have a big say in politics. To add insult, I believe Serrano took the most recent Commander test for a promotion. One would think a senior sergeant with his vast police knowledge would pass, but that would need to be asked by the reader.
In closing, I do not expect any improvement in negotiations with the City of Santa Ana regarding our contract. Once the SAPOA President is removed or resigns, there is a strong possibility that our SAPOA will get a fresh start.
Lord, help us because the SAPOA Membership is praying hard.
Officer Delgadillo’s arguments are both weak and hypocritical.
It is a well known fact that he is able to secure his soft position working downtown through his relationship with Chief Valentin while the real work of protecting the citizens is done through the other men and women of the SAPOA.
It is absolutely laughable that Officer Delgadillo argues about costs when the Officer booked over $124,000 in taxpayer funded Overtime Salary for the year 2019. This is a matter of public record, and a full report was sent to Council in July 2022.
The report shows how only a few officers, all with ties to Chief Valentin, are getting the bulk of overtime compensation.
Finally, a few facts –
The Board of Trustees voted for the recall
The recall is comprised of citizens committee from Santa Ana and is lead by the Citizens
The signatories of the recall must be registered in the two wards
The last election for the POA President gave Gerry Serrano a clear margin of victory
The current so-called lawsuit against the City is a petition not a lawsuit. The petition claims the City in their December 20, 2022 voted violated the City Charter. This is very serious matter.
Perhaps the Officer should spend his time understanding the rule of law and what he has sworn to uphold and protect before putting up his opinion that only creates a question of his police performance.